How to Write Comic Books: Tips From the Pros Part 4

Between now and Part 3 of this series, we got off Twitter (briefly) and read actual books about writing scripts for comics, books written by a murderer’s row of influential minds in the medium. As a result, this most recent entry in our compilation series of writing tips from pros features the mighty Brian Michael Bendis (Bendis is coming!!!!!) and Alan “Watchmen” Moore. Plus, also David Lynch, who hasn’t (to my knowledge) written comics but is an amazing film director and my personal artistic spirit animal.

Before we get to it though, I have to confess that my own work is suffering lately due to me failing to invest enough time in it. To that end, I’m going to start Tweeting a weekly tally of what I write, letting you all know how many pages I outlined, scripted, finished, etc., even if it’s all zeroes. I know myself well, and this sort of accountability and shame will without question move me to productivity.

I’ll report back on how it goes in Part 5 (coming soon, after I read more books). In the meantime, I hope you’ve found a productive lifestyle and an accountability system that works well for you!

Now, onward to the advice!

David Lynch: Have a setup.

It’s almost a cliche of writing advice, but it’s important to keep a notebook with you everywhere you go. I’ve heard this in journalism school, at creative writing workshops, and from countless authors of instructional guides. I recently read a book by my favorite director—the aforementioned David Lynch—called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, and there it was again.

Lynch writes:

“If you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will go away. You didn’t fulfill it—that’s just heartache.”

To emphasize further, I’ll tell a quick story about Chris Claremont, the all-time great Uncanny X-Men writer I recently met at a comic con in Sacramento. While waiting at his table, I noticed that in the big vest Claremont wore, one pocket brimmed with tattered, oft-used notepads. Here’s a guy with nothing to prove, and he’s still practicing that old kinnard of writing advice. One must assume for a master like him, it’s simply become second nature. Us young’uns would do well to follow suit.

Brian Michael Bendis: Story outlines vs. pitch documents.

This book is not only useful, but it's so useful I couldn't bring myself to outline in it, opting instead to tab good passages with sticky notes.

Bendis’ book Words for Pictures is an extremely practical guide, especially for those who dream of getting to Marvel or DC. It’s brimming with advice about everything from communicating with artists to identifying the best editors for a pitch. But one thing I found particularly helpful at this early stage in my career (one full script written, one series outlined, one 8-page mini comic slowly taking shape) was this about the difference between outlines and pitch documents.

Here’s Bendis:

“A pitch document is a quick one or two paragraph document that describes the story or series the writer is trying to sell. A story outline is a somewhat more involved document that goes into more detail about story beats and character arcs. The difference between the two documents is detail.”

This may seem rote, but when you have an idea that’s so exciting you start to get nervous, it’s incredibly grounding to have it laid out so simply. And, perhaps most usefully, Bendis’ book gives several actual examples of both documents. My own takeaway after reading them all was that I should focus on my outline, which should then later inform my pitch when I’m ready. Maybe you’ll have your own process. Another lesson from Bendis is that creating comics is a multi-faceted endeavor with few hard rules but many available examples from those who have had success and want to be helpful.

Or, as the kids say, you do you...but read up on what the masters tell you first.

Alan Moore: God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Alan Moore and George Saunders are two of my favorite writers, but outwardly they share little in common. Moore is a bearded Englishman responsible for comics like the searing social commentary V for Vendetta and the seminal superhero deconstruction Watchmen, held by many as the best superhero story ever. Saunders, meanwhile, is from Chicago (like me!) and writes hilarious and heartbreaking short stories, inimitable bursts of speculative fiction about a ghost haunting a Civil War recreation, or a male stripper whose aunt rises from the dead to demand he start showing his gear at work for more money, and so on.

Saunders and Moore do, however, have something in common: they both insist a vital part of being a good writer is being a good human (I think this is also probably true of Bendis, who “is coming!!!!!” but is also massively convivial by all indications).

Observe this quote from Moore’s book, Writing for Comics:

“...if you want to be a truly great writer, it is perhaps worth remembering that even in this, it is more important to be a good human being than it is to be a good writer. The artists, writers, painters, musicians whose voices speak loudest to us across the centuries are those that turned out to have the most profound souls…”

This makes all kinds of sense. At the core, most stories aim to show growth, and how can one convincingly depict growth without at least striving to be a good human?

Let’s listen to Saunders advising the same in a 2013 commencement speech at Syracuse:

“Since, according to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving: Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now. There’s a confusion in each of us, a sickness, really: selfishness. But there’s also a cure. So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf…”

Or in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, another all-time favorite writer of mine, God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

And hey, what’s the worst case scenario? If being kind doesn’t improve your writing, you’re still putting net positivity into the world, creating something wonderful, and I don’t know about you but creating something wonderful is what brings me to my keyboard in the first place.

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

How to Write Comic Books: Tips From the Pros Part 3

I’m not a football fan. It’s slow and choppy, too many plays get called back, plus, you know, guys are out there literally killing themselves. I prefer basketball, but this post isn’t really about sports. It’s about Super Bowl-winning quarterback Nick Foles, specifically how his journey should inspire writers.

Imagine for a second Nick Foles is one of us: a writer. On Sunday, he won the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, or for comics, an Eisner. That’s great, good for him, but what I find interesting is his journey.

Consider:

• After Foles was released from the Rams in 2015, he considered retirement at age 26.
• In 2016, his old coach, Andy Reid, signed him as a backup; he played in 3 games and threw less than 100 passes.
• In 2017, it took a serious injury to someone else for him to get him on the field, and when he got there, fans and analysts largely thought he’d fail.
• On Sunday he helped win Philadelphia its first Super Bowl.

Foles, essentially, learned from struggles, ignored doubters, did his thing, and excelled. Football, of course, is far different than writing comics (duh) but sports are nothing if not useful metaphors for struggle, and Foles’ path is an epic example for writers who have had to live at home, work day jobs, spend hours honing the craft, tune out doubters, contemplate quitting to preserve sanity, and try for years to break out (if we ever break out at all).

It’s all good to keep in mind at the keyboard.

Now then, let’s get to part three of our series on writing advice. You’ll find parts 1 and 2 below:

• How to Write Comic Books Part 1

• How to Write Comic Books Part 2

How to Write Comic Books: (Almost) Kill Your Darlings

I used to live in Austin, Texas, home to the Michener Center, one of the most prestigious creative writing MFA programs in the country. While there, I saw Michener faculty members speak several times.

One thing that stuck with me was one of the professors referencing the classic Looney Tunes’ short “Duck Amuck,” a clip about Daffy Duck being tormented by the pencils and brushes of an unseen animator. The professor said that as a writer you are the animator and characters are Daffy: a compelling story derives from the obstacles you put in their paths.

Matthew Rosenberg, a rising star at Marvel who most-recently penned the critically-acclaimed Phoenix Resurrection, certainly agrees. Rosenberg recently laid out similar thoughts in a thread on Twitter, highlights below:

It is our job to make people feel and care about these characters. To make you relate and empathize with them. Often times that means bad things have to happen.

Tragedy doesn't come from a disdain for the protagonist, it comes from a love of the protagonist. But in superhero comics it goes a step further. We love these heroes because they overcome, because they show us strength.

And they can't show us those strengths without being tested. It's from these tests that they become the characters we love. It's these tests that show us why we love them. (Editor’s note: DING DING DING! This!)

So when you read your comics and see that Spider-Man is suffering, Thor is at her breaking point, or that the X-Men have it bad, please know that we do this because we know they will come out the other side stronger. That's the point.

Well said.

How to Write Comic Books: Write Like a Mother$#@%!$

One common problem of aspiring writers (the most common excuse I make myself) is not having time or energy to write. We contemplate quitting jobs, going back to school, moving home with our parents...all just to make an honest run at writing.

We have the desire, we just can’t seem to get words on the page, for whatever reason. This is also the subject of a famous column of writing advice: Write Like a Mother$#@%!$ by Cheryl Strayed (who wrote Wild, which was also a movie starring Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon). In it, Strayed tells a frustrated writer that the path to success lies in staying humble, doing the work, and writing like a mother$#@%! (Strayed uses more inspiring language, of course).

Last month, another rising comics pro at Marvel, Jim Zub, who is currently team-writing the exciting Avengers weekly mega team-up No Surrender, gave aspiring comics creators similar advice, also in a Twitter thread. Zub wrote in response to a guy in his 40s who’d asked him if he should cash out his 401K to quit his job and use the threat of financial ruination to motivate himself to become a full-time comic writer.

Some highlights:

First off, yeah...How to even respond to that.
Part of me just wants to type "NO" and send it, but that would be crass and awkward.

On top of that, is fearing future financial disaster the motivation you need to create stories you claim you've wanted to do for the past 30 years?
I don't know you, but I'm not buying that.

The romanticized ideal of the inspired artist sacrificing everything as they cast themselves off a cliff waiting for destiny to kick in and save them is Hollywood-esque Survivor's Fallacy Bullshit.
Look at the corpses on the rocks below. Chances are that's you.

On the one hand, I'm sort of thankful this guy is asking me, someone who _still_ teaches at a college full-time while I write 3+ comics per month because I don't want to financially hook myself when it comes to creative endeavours.

When it comes to crazy comic dream sacrifice plays, I'm about as pragmatic as you can get. If I was a superhero, my name would probably be Schedule Guy. Asking me if you should expose your financial underbelly for the Arts is not going to go far.

"If only I had time-"
Make time. Set an alarm and wake up an hour early or an hour before bed. Write.
Make it 2 hours on Saturdays. That's 8 hours per week.

"If only I could dedicate myself-"
You can and it doesn't have to be with the shadow of financial ruin looming over you.

"I've always wanted to-"
Cool. Do it. Make a thing. Finish it.
Learn from it. Do it again. Keep doing it.

Isn’t that great? I know it struck a chord with me. Zub even cleaned it up and put it on his blog, which I’ve bookmarked for ready consumption when I don’t feel like making myself write. I suggest you do the same.

How to Write Comic Books: Listen to the Pros

Finally, I’m obviously not the first to try to learn from pros. In fact, Patrick Zircher, an underrated artist who’s been doing outstanding work as of late at DC, compiled a quick list of the best tips from industry legends, a list he was kind enough to Tweet:

Advice & pep that has stuck with me:

Don't draw each eyelash
- Stan Lee

Think
- Steve Ditko

Go get 'em, kid
- Jack Kirby

No matter how good or bad you are, if you can't tell a story you won't last
- John Romita Sr

Strip it down & draw the hell out of what's left
- Alex Toth

With that, I’m off to print this out, laminate it, and permanently affix it on my writing desk. What you do with this advice now is up to you!

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

How to Write Comics: Tips From the Pros Part 2

In writing, the simplest truth is that if you don’t sit down to write, the work won’t get done, regardless of your talent. This sounds obvious (I can just feel your eye rolls), but being disciplined and making time to write is the advice I've heard accomplished writers give the most.

Yet, for me it’s a struggle, because there’s always Twitter and my stacks of unread comics and the simple pleasures of just staring wistfully into space. Making time to write every day is kind of like getting eight hours of sleep: I know how important it is, but wasting time on my phone is just sooooo much easier.

To combat distraction, however, I try to think of my daily writing time (ideally an hour before work each morning and another hour at night after dinner) as a foundation. In that, I could know all there is to know about building fancy walls and windows, but the whole thing will fall over if I don’t have a solid base.

That metaphor is a bit jumbled (self editing is also very important, clearly), but there’s truth in it somewhere. Basically, I think you can know characters and three-act structure and scripting and suspense, but if you don’t put your time in, all your other knowledge will go to waste.

This series, however, is not about my own fairly obvious musings! (Although, I do tack some onto each section.) No, it’s about the advice I compile from comic book writers and editors and other creative people. Before we get to that good stuff, though, I’d like to note that last week’s How to Write Comics: Tips from the Pros Part 1 is and will continue to be up on the site. And, as always, if you want to share your own tips, thoughts, or just some pictures of small dogs looking like cranky humans, please reach out to batmansbookcase@gmail.com.

Happy writing and creating, friends, much love to you this week with all your creative endeavors!

The Importance of Writing When You Don’t Feel Like It

Eric Heisserrer is the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter responsible for Arrival as well as for the best Valiant book of 2017, Secret Weapons. He may have a difficult to spell last name that I had to triple check, but he also knows the importance of getting yourself to the keyboard at times when you don’t feel inspired to write. Here's a bit from his Twitter:

I have written more than 400 script pages in the last three months and, while it has been awful, there were a dozen brilliant discoveries in that mess. Writing when I don't want to write often bears fruit.

I LOVE this. I'm one who makes this excuse: “I don’t have any ideas right now, so I’ll just skip today and go hard tomorrow.” Sound familiar? I bet it does. Well, Heisserrer’s Tweet exposes this as a lazy cop out. It’s important, of course, to write when you’re burning with inspiration, but it’s equally as important to force yourself back to your pages when you don’t feel like it. You never know what you'll find until you open your word doc and arrive (sorry, Mr. Heisserrer! I have a lot of growing to do still, clearly).

How to Write Comics: Scripting

Greg Pak, who you may know from the super-underrated Totally Awesome Hulk or the increasingly popular Mech Cadet Yu, gave me a gift this week. While I was putting together this piece, he laid down a Twitter thread about comic book writing so exquisite, I nearly wept. This thread got much run, but I'm going to rehash it here in case you missed it, as well as for posterity. Buckle in, because it's a long one. You might even call it hulking (what is wrong with me?):

How I write a comic book script:

1. Outline the whole thing.
2. Break the outline down into pages.
   A. Break pages down into panels, then add dialogue.
   B. Hammer out some dialogue, then break down into panels.
3. Write from the beginning, but if I get stuck, skip around and write the easier scenes first.
4. Go back and write the harder scenes, which are easier now that I've done the rest.
   A. If I'm really stuck on a scene/beat, call up my editor and talk it out. Editors are awesome. Sometimes they just nod and say "uh huh" and let me blab until I work it out. Sometimes they ask just the right questions. These calls ALWAYS help.
5. Rewrite the easier scenes now that I've written the harder scenes and know my story better.
6. Go through and edit everything multiple times.
7. Turn it in when I run out of time.
8. Enjoy that fourteen minutes of calm you get after turning in a script.
9. Work on revisions.
10. Figure out what it's REALLY all about and make the subtle dialogue tweaks that bring out that deeper theme/emotional thread.

Also worth noting re: 1: If my outline is really working, it nails the big plot beats as well as the big emotional turning points & thematic brushstrokes. All the essential things that make the story work & matter. A great outline means the scripting goes MUCH more smoothly.

Hardest parts of writing a script:

• The outline.
• The beginning (particularly working in exposition seamlessly in a serial story).
• The ending/cliffhanger.
• Pages 14-16 or so. Those beats before the climax (p.s. it's all hard, sorry.).

There's an interesting mechanical aspect to writing a script, sometimes. Where you come up against page count limits, for example, and realize that helps you make decisions that work. For example, every once in a while, I'll have a 3-page scene that's hard to crack. So I'll write everything that precedes & follows it. And suddenly I discover that there's only a page left for the tricky scene -- and that's all it needed. Or maybe I don't really need it at all.

Two general notes to myself that always seems to work is give your characters quiet moments that dramatize character, especially early in the script/story, and give the big emotional beats time to play out. Let it breathe when it needs to breathe.

There's a lot of unspoken panic, particularly in superhero comics, to blow something up pretty quickly. Understandable. Gotta grab people's attention in 5-page previews. BUT action without emotional drama falls flat. Gotta take the time to build character and emotional drive.

Other ongoing activities essential to the writing process:
A. Drink a glass of water.
B. Get enough sleep and food.
C. Acknowledge that whatever you're writing this very instant isn't perfect, but you're gonna revise it and make it better and "perfection" is an illusion anyway.

Also worth noting: Everyone has a different process! This is just what works for me, right now, for the most part, most of the time. Figure out what works for you and do that.

This is helpful in a couple ways. Not only has he given us so much invaluable practical advice, but he's also given us encouraging glimpses into his own occasional frustrations and struggles. I'm yet to be paid for a script, and I find it incredibly comforting that someone as experienced and good at what he does as Pak has similar troubles as I do.

How to Write Comic Books: Gail Simone Section

One of my favorite comic book writers on Twitter is Gail Simone, who is not only really good at what she does, but is also incredibly generous with advice. I featured her last week, I'm featuring her again here, and, WARNING, I'll probably feature her again next week. For today, she weighed in on the value of finishing small projects when you're just starting out:

First, get something completed. It is a rare person new to comics who can make a full OGN happen. Start smaller. A smaller story has fewer places to hide, and thus is better practice, anyway.

Every item you COMPLETE will change you for the better, I promise. If you finish a ten page story, you will have learned a metric ton of information about what NOT to do next time. But it only works if you FINISH things.

Now, I have a bit of experience writing short stories, with a handful of publications at journals that even many folks in the literary world haven't heard of, so I'm by no means an expert, but one of the obstacles that tripped me up when I started was that I obsessed over my BIG ideas, thinking I could and should be able to execute them now. I wish I'd known the value of baby-steps, as well as the value of being patient with one's art. No writing time is ever wasted, of course, but I would have certainly done things a bit differently. 

Motivation from Lin-Manuel Miranda

Our final comic writing tip this week comes from outside the medium, from Lin-Manuel Miranda, the lyricist, composer and playwright behind Broadway mega hit Hamilton. Really though, this one is an inspirational missive for any creative, one that shows the broad ways (at what point is this a cry for help?) and time investment one must make for success. On New Year’s Eve 2017, Miranda Tweeted:

What I was doing on New Years Eve 2011. The work is hard but it is worth it. Don’t give up.

With a screen cap of another Tweet of his from back then...

It’s very hard to write battle raps between Jefferson and Hamilton when you’re nowhere near as smart as the people for whom you are writing. The hamster in the hamster wheel that runs my fevered brain needs a drink.

I find this incredibly inspirational. Roughly five years after this Tweet, Miranda's hard work bore fruit in the form of the most successful Broadway musical penned in most of our lifetimes. He was clearly struggling when he wrote the first one, but he forced himself onward, kept working, kept running with that hamster wheel in his fevered brain. Pretty awesome.

Anyway, do you hear that? It’s the keyboards of the world calling us to give them some love. Best of luck, friends. I hope the ideas flow, but, more importantly, I hope you stick to your writing schedule. The brilliant work inside you depends on it!

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.